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A much-anticipated facelift of the Eiffel Tower was unveiled yesterday with a new glass floor to dizzy the millions of tourists who flock to Paris's best-known landmark every year.
Its owners hope the formerly dowdy and draughty first floor will become as big an attraction as the viewing platform on top of the 324-metre tower - the world's most visited monument with an admission fee.
Visitors are now able to look down through a solid glass floor to the ground 57 metres below, with transparent and eco-friendly pavilions built around the tower's enormous central void.
To further heighten the frisson of walking on air, the glass safety barriers around the edge have been inclined outwards.
One Jordanian tourist, Yousef Mobaidin, said he was "terrified. It looks really scary," gripping his friend's arm as he walked on the glass.
Aaron Smith from Hawaii admitted to getting butterflies, hoping "they did a good job building it."
Previously the first floor was the tower's least visited part, but its operators hope tourists will now linger at the end of their visit behind sheltering floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook Paris.

The €30 million (HK$290 million) refit, which took two years, includes shops, restaurants and a museum where the history of the 125-year-old tower will be told on seven screens.
The city of Paris charged architects Moatti-Riviere with creating a space that would show off Gustave Eiffel's impressive original ironwork and make it accessible for disabled visitors.
The new structures will also produce part of their own energy using windmills and solar panels, and the toilets will be run partly on rainwater.
"We wanted to set an example," said Jean-Bernard Bros, the president of SETE, the tower's operator, which had a turnover of €73 million last year.
The "Iron Lady" attracts around seven million visitors a year, of which 85 per cent are foreign tourists. Most visitors, however, come from France (12.5 per cent) followed by Americans (8.5 per cent), Britons (7.1 per cent), Italians (6.7 per cent) and Germans (5.7 per cent).
 

Towering achievements
Opened during the World's Fair in 1889 - the centenary of the French revolution - the tower was the world's tallest manmade structure for 40 years, until it was overtaken by New York's Chrysler Building in 1929.
It took two years, two months and five days to build. It was meant to be dismantled after only 20 years, but was saved because its creator, the engineer Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923), had pushed it as a major base for scientific innovation, particularly in early radio transmissions.
There are 1,665 steps to the top of the tower. The first floor is at 57 metres, the second at 115 metres and the third at 276 metres.
Open every day, the tower has had more than 250 million visitors since it opened. Some 6,740,000 visitors made their way to the top last year, of which 87.5 per cent were foreigners. It employs 308 people.
The tower has 18,000 iron parts, not including 2.5 million rivets, weighing a total of 10,100 tonnes.
Around 1,000 of those tonnes were pared off its structure during a five-year renovation programme launched in 1980.
The tower's turnover was €73 million (HK$709 million) last year, and it made a profit of €6 million.
Agence France-Presse


Eiffel Tower's see-through floor to give visitors new perspective

The Eiffel Tower in Paris attracts some seven million visitors a year, of whom 85 per cent are foreign tourists. Photo: AFP

The Eiffel Tower in Paris attracts some seven million visitors a year, of whom 85 per cent are foreign tourists.Photo: AFP

A model shows the renovation of the first floor. Photo: moatti-riviere.com

Visitors take photos as they lie down on the new glass floor on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Photo: AFP

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World

A much-anticipated facelift of the Eiffel Tower was due to be unveiled yesterday with a new glass floor to dizzy the millions of tourists who flock to Paris's best-known landmark every year.
